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The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread from MPR News

The Thread® is your source for book recommendations and other literary news.

Ask a Bookseller

Ask a Bookseller is a weekly series where The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. Listen to Ask a Bookseller to find your next favorite book.

Big Books and Bold Ideas

Big Books and Bold Ideas is a weekly series hosted by Kerri Miller every Friday at 11 a.m., featuring conversations about books and other literary ideas. Listen to Big Books and Bold Ideas here.

Sign Up for The Thread® Newsletter

Sign up for The Thread newsletter to get reading recommendations from Kerri Miller and other bookworms around the MPR newsroom. Find reviews for new releases, as well as hidden gems you may have missed.

Talking Volumes

Talking Volumes is back for its 25th season. Join us at the Fitzgerald Theater for four special events with renowned authors, celebrating our anniversary with a special $25 ticket price for MPR members and Star Tribune subscribers. Buy tickets here.

A boy avenges his murdered father, with the help of a magical 'Ikenga'

A boy avenges his murdered father, with the help of a magical 'Ikenga'

Nnedi Okorafor found her superpower — storytelling — when she was a teenager. She draws on her own past and her connection to Nigeria in her latest novel, about a 12-year-old finding his own powers.
by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

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'Luster' shines with sharp wit and dark humor

'Luster' shines with sharp wit and dark humor

Raven Leilani's new novel will make you cringe for all the right reasons. It's an intergenerational, interracial love story with a heart of noir and gallows humor, so honest it will make you squirm.
by Gabino Iglesias

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'Empire of Wild' interweaves mystery and love

'Empire of Wild' interweaves mystery and love

Bookseller Nadine Teisberg of Birchbark Books in Minneapolis is recommending the novel “Empire of Wild” by Cherie Dimaline. Teisberg calls the novel an intriguing mystery and a powerful love story, interwoven with Dimaline’s own Georgian Bay Métis culture and traditions. 
by Emily Bright

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'Break It Up' examines the history of secession movements in the U.S.

'Break It Up' examines the history of secession movements in the U.S.

Author Richard Kreitner tells NPR he didn't write his book as a prescription, but that "if we are talking about the end of democracy in America ... I think we need to have all options on the table."
by Steve Inskeep

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'Fallout' tells the story of the journalist who exposed the 'Hiroshima Cover-Up'

Lesley M.M. Blume's new book tells the story of John Hersey, the young journalist whose on-the-ground reporting in Hiroshima, Japan, exposed the world to the devastation of nuclear weapons.
by Dave Davies

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'Veritas' asks how a respected scholar could be duped by a bumbling fraudster

'Veritas' asks how a respected scholar could be duped by a bumbling fraudster

Author Ariel Sabar explores the lives of Harvard's Karen King and of Walter Fritz, the porn producer who convinced her the papyrus fragment he gave her — "The Gospel of Jesus's Wife" — was genuine.
by Tom Gjelten

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'Black Bottom Saints' is a gorgeous swirl of fiction, history and Detroit motor oil

'Black Bottom Saints' is a gorgeous swirl of fiction, history and Detroit motor oil

Alice Randall's innovative new novel chronicles the history of Black Detroit beyond Motown, and features a cast of real life artists, doctors, sports figures, activists and movers and shakers.
by Maureen Corrigan

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The Thread: Three books to read during the Democratic National Convention

The Thread: Three books to read during the Democratic National Convention

For the next two weeks, political junkies will be consumed with the pandemic-adjusted happenings of Democrats and Republicans at their respective conventions. Kerri Miller brings us must-read fiction and nonfiction for the political junkie in all of us.
by Kerri Miller

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Can women break the ‘glass ceiling’ in a ‘man’s world’? Or is that the wrong question?

Can women break the ‘glass ceiling’ in a ‘man’s world’? Or is that the wrong question?

During the month of August, MPR News host Kerri Miller is exploring what it means to be a woman in America. This week, we turn to Democratic political advisor and author Jennifer Palmieri about feminism and her new book, “She Proclaims: Our Declaration of Independence from a Man's World.”
by Kerri Miller and Breann Schossow

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